Pages

Apr 9, 2014

Revolving Door

Spring Break is here and I am all-in with the projects! First on my list: repainting the back door. Last summer I decided to try to paint that bad boy an inviting yellow. My patch job on the door turned out pretty well, but my painting technique left something to be desired (hello, visible brush strokes) and my color choices were somewhat... let's just be honest, they were bad. The soft yellow put off too much of a "bathroom" vibe and the bright yellow gave neons a run for their money.

Too creamy.

We forgot to install a dimmer switch!

Believe it or not, I've had our "fix it" new door color picked out since last fall. I just had to wait for the weather to be agreeable and the time to do it. We went with a moody blue that looked somewhere between navy and peacock from Behr called Twilight Chimes. We went with this blue for a few reasons. It looked nice with our house color (Martha Stewart's Flagstone) and white trim. I found a very similar color scheme on someone else's house and loved the way it looked. It seemed to work well in both full sun and full shade, and it seemed like it wouldn't clash with our oddly reddish roofing.

I got a quart mixed, sanded the whole door down to hide the old brush strokes and give the paint something to hold on to. I decided that this time around, I'd give the foam roller another go. Wouldn't you know, it was just as I suspected last time I painted that door. Those brush strokes were all user error-induced. I still used my trim brush to do the inset panels and around the window, but this time I made such thin coats with the brush that it was really more like using a dry-brushing technique than real painting. I made very thin coats with the foam roller as well. It took five coats, but the end result was worth it. The brush strokes are hardly noticeable, and the door color looks nice and even.

So much less jarring! And less junk on the patio!

I figured as long as I was painting, I'd do some touch-up caulking and painting around the door too. And, at Steve's suggestion, I painted the window frame white.

Looks nice under gray skies and full sun!

Hubba, hubba. I am so in love with how this turned out, I'm thinking of painting the inside of the door and then our front door. I think the rest of that back area needs some more love, too- string trim the tall grass near the house, pressure wash the patio, maybe get a little side table to set between the chairs and definitely make some flowering containers for back here once we make it out of the frost zone!